AI, Deepfakes, and How Technologists Can Help Us Trust What We See and Hear | Sam Gregory (Exec. Dir. of WITNESS)

Deepfakes are getting easier and easier to make. So, how will we be able to believe that what we see and what we hear is real? And what can software makers do to help?

Sam Gregory is an expert on deepfakes, AI, and trust. He advises governments and tech companies on how they can protect human rights and how we can preserve our shared reality. 

Sam is the executive director of WITNESS, an organization that helps citizens use video to foster social change. WITNESS has trained and supported citizen-journalists since the days of the camcorder through the smartphone era and now into the world of AI. 

We discuss:

• How deepfakes are being used to spread disinformation and erode trust in media.
• How to detect that a piece of media was manipulated and to what degree
• Why audio deepfakes are so pernicious
• How deepfakes mostly did not affect the 2024 US Presidential Election, while cheapfakes were very common
• The surprising ways AI is both helping and harming human rights defenders and journalists
• Why “Prepare, Don’t Panic” is WITNESS’s mantra for addressing AI threats.
• Practical steps software makers can take to design tools that prioritize transparency and ethical use, such as including transparency features in AI-generated content, red teaming to simulate misuse scenarios, thinking beyond Western contexts, and more…

Chapters:

• (00:55) - Deepfakes and the threat they pose human rights and journalism
• (03:16) - The 2024 US election and how deepfakes, cheapfakes, and audio clones were used
• (07:35) - Why WITNESS. says “Prepare, Don’t Panic” about AI
• (11:16) - Recommendation for software builders to prevent — and detect — misuse
• (13:45) - How to identify that a piece of media was manipulated by AI
• (17:31) - Red Teaming: The scary questions builders should ask as they deploy new products
• (22:20) - WITNESS.’s work beyond AI
• (26:00) - Good news: we’ve preparing for AI and deepfakes for a long time and governments and technologists are working together

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Links:

• Learn more about WITNESS: witness.org
• Visit WITNESS’s resources on generative AI: gen-ai.witness.org
• Learn more about deepfakes and AI detection: C2PA Coalition

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